THE LATEST NEWS OF IMPORTANT EVENTS
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rwo EXPERIMENTAL TROLLEYBUSES FOR LONDON.
ON oar parlia.tnentary-news page this week we record a question con
cerning the London Passenger Transport Board's order, placed with the A.E.C. concern for two trolleybusesa four-wheeled 60-seater double-decker and a six-wheeled 73-seater doubledecker. The 60-seater will have both electrical equipment and metal bodywork by the English Electric Co., Ltd. The 73-seater will have electrical gear by the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Co., Ltd., and a Metropolitan-CammellWeyrnann metal body. They are not Q-type side-motor vehicles.
TRAFFIC INCREASE IN YORKSHIRE.
M A T the 29th Ordinary General Meet
ing, last week, of the Yorkshire (West Riding) Electric Tramways Co., Ltd., it was disclosed that the traffic and sundry revenue for this year was £118,884 (£16,518 up on last year). This is, in the main, accounted for by the change-over from tramways to buses in 1932, in which year, therefore, there was less than six months of motorbus operation. The abandonment of the remainder of the tramways meant a capital loss of 4182,306, represented by rails, power plant, cables, etc. The company was, however, able to change over from tramways to buses without raising any fresh capital.
The year's operations show a net income of £40,518, which, with £8,153 brought forward, makes £48,671 able for distribution as dividends, depreciation, and reserves. The directors recommended a dividend of 6 per cent. on the preference shares (£10,409), and 5 per cent, on the ordinary shares (£7,683). Additionally, £600 is reserved in lieu of workmen's compensation insurance, £15,562 is reserved for annual depreciation of buses, plant, etc., £8,000 is the provision for lost capital, and £6,417 is carried forward.
MORE GREEN LINE FACILITIES.
ACOMMITTEE of Westminster City Council has prepared a report with regard to a request from London Transport for support of applications to the Traffic Commissioner for approval of certain extra suburban coach services through Regent Street and Piccadilly. Briefly, the report urges that bus journeys along these streets in quiet hours should be reduced by as much as coach
journeys are increased. • YORK MERGER APPROVAL
THE scheme for merging York Corporation's bus undertaking with part of the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., system was approved by the city council on March 19.
ASCOT WEEK: GOOD WORK BY THE M.H.C.S.A.
ON March 19, before the Metropolitan and South Eastern Traffic Commissioners, the Motor Hirers and Coach Services Association, Ltd., made a representation, on behalf of some 150 London-area opetators concerned in the Ascot-week coaching, that lower fares should he allowed. It was asked that 4s. 6d. he standardized for Tuesday and Friday and 5s. 6d. for Wednesday and Thursday, instead of the stipulated 5s. 6d. and 7s. respectively, for Green Line coaches are able to charge only 3s. 6d. The lower fares were granted by the Commissioners.
MYSTERY-TRIP LICENCES REFUSED.
AN application by Mr. H. R. Grindle, of Cinderford, to the Western Traffic Commissioners for licences to run mystery trips into the Forest of Dean was objected to at a sitting at Gloucester last week by the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., and by Red and White Services, Ltd.
Certain of the routes were said to be very much the same as those of the stage-carriage services already operating.
Mr. Grindle was granted a licence to run to Tidworth. but refused licences for Highnam and Newnham, CHEAP TICKETS IN NORTH WALES.
CAERNARVON County Council has ‘...adopted a recommendation of the Finance Committee that the Traffic Commissioners for the North Western Area be urged to insist upon a continuation of workmen's and pupils' weekly tickets as a condition of the renewals of bus service licences which' have been applied for by Crosville Motor Services, Ltd.
NEWCASTLE LOSES IN PROTECTION APPEAL.
NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE Corporation has lost its appeal to the Ministry of Transport against the refusal of the Traffic Commissioners to increase the fared charged by United Automobile Services, Ltd., on the NewcastleThrockley route.
The corporation applied to the Ministry to have the monthly contract tickets issued by the United concern increased from 1.1.s. to 15s. 6d., as a protective measure for the corporation's Newcastle-Denton Burn services. The corporation complained, amongst other things, that the United season-ticket holders were travelling by United buses, alighting just beyond the city boundary and walking back within the boundary.
TICKET IRREGULARITIES IN YORKSHIRE.
AT Otley, on March 16, fines totalling £4, with 32s. 6d: costs, were imposed on Messrs. Fred and Herman Croft, bus and garage proprietors, of Yeadon, for not issuing tickets to their passengers, and for charging a fare below that specified.
Prosecuting on behalf of the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners, Mr. J. Wurzal said Messrs. Croft had a licence to run excursions to Bradford, at a fare of is. 6c1.. When they ran a bus to a football match at Bradford on January 27 they issued no tickets and charged one shilling.
Pleading guilty, Fred Croft said they had been running football excursions from Yeadon to Bradford since 1919, and they had never issued any tickets. They charged is. 611. to the Bradford Park Avenue ground and is. to the Bradford City ground, which was not nearly so far.' A previous conviction was admitted.
CONSETT STATION PROPOSAL.
DUS owners of Consett, Co. Durham, .1../have agreed to contribute towards the cost of building an up-to-date bus station, according to a scheme proposed by Consett Urban Council.
KEIGHLEY.WEST YORKS RESULTS.
DURING the first year's working of L..Keighley-West Yorkshire, Ltd., the company formed when the passenger transport services in the Keighley district, operated by the Keighley Corporation and the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., Were amalgamated, a sum of £4,000 has been made for the corporation. In addition the corporation will get the benefit of a substantial sum from the joint working arrangement on the Keighley-Bradford route, which is operated by the West Yorkshire concern.
This information was disclosed by Alderman M. P. Cryer, in presenting the annual rate statement to the members of the Keighley Corporation, and was the first indication of the financial results of the merger. The trolleybus service of the Corporation was scrapped B46
just before the merger took place, and motorbuses were substituted. The new , company, the first of its kind in which a corporation and a privatecompany operate together, began work in October, 1932.
Satisfaction was expressed at the result of the first year's activity, and Alderman Cryer claimed that the merger had been more than justified. When the services were merged and the company was formed the corporation took £21,500 from reserve. Of this £11,000 was used to purchase new rolling stock to transfer to the new company, and £10,500 was used to liquidate the outstanding debts on the motorbus and trolleybus services oi the corporation.
If these debts had not been liquidated there would have been a charge of 6d. in the pound on the rates during the current year.
INVERNESS SUNDAY BUSES; NO APPEAL.
DY 24 Votes to 12, Inverness County L./Council has decided not to appeal against the Traffic Commissioners' decision regarding Sunday buses in the Highlands. The appeal will therefore be withdrawn.
IS IT SAFE TO " COAST" ?• ASETTLEMENT has been reached at Blyth in a dispute between United Automobile Services, Ltd., and employees respecting the dismissal of a bus driver for exceeding the petrol allowance recognized by the company. The driver concerned has been reinstated. It has been alleged by the men that the company issued instructions that bus drivers should " coast" when going down inclines in order to save petrol.
,SALFORD'S BUS-PURCHASE PLAN.
SALFORD City Council has referred back the recommendation of the transport committee to borrow £18,000 for the purchase of 10 buses.
S.M.T. WAGES AND CONDITIONS.
EMPLOYEES of the Scottish Motor 1...Traction Co., Ltd., who complain that their wages and conditions of service are inferior to those operating in the Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee municipal transport services, are voting this week on the question of future • agreements. Should the ballot favour their termination, three months' notice to that effect will be given by the passenger branches of the Transport and General Workers Union, which is claiming all-round increases, a 48-hour week of six days, and two weeks' annual holiday with pay.
WALLASEY'S SUCCESSFUL BUSES.
DURING the current year Wallasey Corporation buses have shown a surplus of £18,994, to which a balance of £7,353, brought in from last year, has to be added. The net outstanding debt of the bus undertaking of £23,688 has now been met. A profit of £11,000 is expected next year.
CURTAILED FACILITIES IN SOUTH WALES.
IT waA suggested at the recent meeting lof Tredegar Urban District Council that in the event of the bus companies increasing fares or curtailing the early-morning or late-at-night bus services, as, it was stated, was proposed, the public should boycott the buses.
It was decided to oppose any proposal of service curtailment or increase of fares which might be put forward.
PROTECTION FOR NORTHERN TROLLEYBUS SERVICES.
DARLINGTON Town Council has been granted protective fares by the Northern Traffic Commissioners in respect of certain trolleybus services.
PROGRESSIVE AGENCY RUN BY UNDERGRADUATES.
THE concern of Undergraduate Road1 ways, 48, Jesus Lane, Cambridge, must be almost unique in its way. This
is a road and air-travel booking agency established by a small group of undergraduates and it is now busily engaged in entering into contracts for summer tours, as well as in catering for the bulk of the contract-carriage needs of Cambridge and the surrounding district.
The success of this concern, which is entirely engaged' in hooking parties for travel by road and air, is largely due to enterprise in taking note of every possible opportunity for the exploitation of road-transport needs. Moreover, no " notice " of any need for a coach is regarded as being too short.
In Cambridge, contract work is, strangely enough, much more diverse during the winter than in summer, principally in connection with sport,
A BUS SERVICE FOR HADDINGTON.
THE Scottish Motor Traction , Co., Ltd., is to apply to the Traffic Commissioners for permission to extend its Edinburgh Tranent Pencaitla.nd Service to Haddington. This is being done at the request of the town council of the last-named town.
LINCOLNSHIRE BUS OWNERS' DINNER.
1VIEETING under the presidency of IVIMrs. M. L. Morley, of Grimsby, bus owners from all parts of Lincolnshire assembled at Gainsborough at the weekend, on the occasion of the annual dinner of the Lincolnshire Omnibus and Transport Owners Association.
Mr. J. H. Stirk, chairman ot the East Midland Traffic Commissioners, was unable to be present, but in a message said he hoped the annual dinner and the coming,into force of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, would mean an increased membership, as he always preferred to deal with an association.
Mrs. Morley said the association regretted the decrease of membership during the year owing to the absorption of many passenger concerns by the larger companies, but the committee had decided to open its doors to hauliers.